Location Based Services - Social Media for the Future

Location Based Services (LBS) are quickly growing in popularity. The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life project recently reported that 4% of online adults use a location based services such as Foursquare or Gowalla. LBS allows users to share their location with friends and to find others who are nearby.

Texas State Mass Communication Week panel “Trends in Location-Based Social Networking” addressed current and future uses of LBS. The panel featured Jon Carroll, Gowalla founder; Aaron Strout of social media company Powered; Simon Salt of Incslingers; and Tony Avila, owner of One Taco.

Salt started off by discussing the basic purpose of LBS, networking. Asking the question “who might be worth connecting with [though these services]?” is a great starting point, he said. Carrol added on, describing the current social media model. He described the model as a two-way communication form based on incoming and outgoing messages--think Facebook status updates and comments or tweets, retweets and replys. He then went on to describe what LBS Gowalla has added to that model. Carrol described that by adding location, Gowalla brings an additional dimention to social media and adds more intrest.

Without context, he added, location alone would not be intresting, and vice-versa. For example, you could simply update your twitter status to say, “On a picnic with friends,” but on Gowalla you could make the same update would with two additional pieces of information-your exact location and who is with or near you. So your original status “On a picnic of with friends” becomes “On a picnic with friends” - at Mt. Bonnell with Sarge Smith. Plus, someone looking at this information will know if any of their friends are in the same location or have visited it recently.

The panel then went on to talk about how businesses can benefit from LBS. Avila, owner of One Taco, shared a story about his personal experience with LBS. During SXSW 2010, One Taco partnered with Gowalla on an experimental marketing project. A virtual good was created in the form of a taco and several were distributed throughout Austin. During the festival, Gowalla users who “found” a virtual taco could come to One Taco to redeem their virtual good for a real taco. According to Avila, this had several results. First, it brought in new customers in the form of people redeeming their virtual taco. Second, it increased sales; for every person brought in by Gowalla, Tony sold about 12 tacos to their friends. Finally, it created a buzz and helped build awareness. People were excited by this idea and were sharing the news with friends not only in passing but on their blogs and social networks. In time, more popular blogs started hearing about One Taco and even people began to pay attention. All of this because of one virtual good! For me, this story really solidified the idea of LBS as a free and powerful marketing tool.

I found this to panel on up-and-coming location-based social media tool to be informative and exciting. It inspired me to use LBS more frequently and encourage my friends and family who own businesses to take advantage of the powerful tools at their disposal. LBS has benefits for individuals, consumers and businesses of all sizes and is helping these groups connect on a more meaningful level then ever before.